To celebrate Earth Day, the University of Nebraska Press is happy to feature some of our new and upcoming titles in Environmental Studies. For more books on the subject, check out these series: Our Sustainable Future, Outdoor Lives, Discover the Great Plains, America’s Public Lands, and Environment and Region in the American West.

Preserving Yellowstone’s Natural Conditions (October 2022) by James A. Pritchard

Preserving Yellowstone’s Natural Conditions describes in fascinating detail the historical origins and development of wildlife management in Yellowstone National Park, alongside shifting understandings of nature in science and culture. In the new afterword to this book Pritchard summarizes recent developments in wildlife science and management—such as the “ecology of fear” and trophic cascades—and discusses historical continuities in the role of the park as a wildlife refuge and the inestimable values of the park for wildlife conservation.

Strength from the Waters (October 2022) by James V. Mestaz

Strength from the Waters is an environmental and social history that frames economic development, environmental concerns, and Indigenous mobilization within the context of a timeless issue: access to water. Between 1927 and 1970 the Mayo people—an Indigenous group in northwestern Mexico—confronted changing access to the largest freshwater source in the region, the Fuerte River.

Outback and Out West (November 2022) by Tom Lynch

Outback and Out West examines the ecological consequences of a settler-colonial imaginary by comparing expressions of settler colonialism in the literature of the American West and Australian Outback. Tom Lynch traces exogenous domination in both regions, which resulted in many similar means of settlement, including pastoralism, homestead acts, afforestation efforts, and bioregional efforts at “belonging.” 

Aquaman and the War Against Oceans (November 2022) by Ryan Poll

In Aquaman and the War against Oceans, Ryan Poll argues that in this twenty-first-century iteration, Aquaman becomes an accessible figure for charting environmental violences endemic to global capitalism and for developing a progressive and popular ecological imagination. Poll contends that The New 52 Aquaman should be read as an allegory that responds to the crises of the Anthropocene, in which the oceans have become sites of warfare and mass death.

Hydronarratives (January 2023) by Matthew S. Henry

In Hydronarratives, Matthew S. Henry examines cultural representations that imagine a just transition, a concept rooted in the U.S. labor and environmental justice movements to describe an alternative economic paradigm predicated on sustainability, economic and social equity, and climate resilience.

Restoring Nature (January 2023) by Lary M. Dilsaver and Timothy J. Babalis

In Restoring Nature, Lary M. Dilsaver and Timothy J. Babalis examine how the National Park Service has attempted to reestablish native wildlife and vegetation to Channel Islands National Park through restorative ecology and public land management. The Channel Islands staff were innovators of the inventory and monitoring program whereby the resource problems were exposed. This program became a blueprint for management throughout the U.S. park system.

Losing Eden (June 2023) by Sara Dant

Cohesive and compelling, Losing Eden recognizes the central role of the natural world in the history of the American West and provides important analysis on the continually evolving relationship between the land and its inhabitants.

Unsettling Agribusiness (June 2023) by LaShandra Sullivan

In the last half century Brazil’s rural economy has developed profitable soy and sugarcane plantations, causing mass displacement of rural inhabitants, deforestation, casualization of labor, and reorganization of politics. In Unsettling Agribusiness, LaShandra Sullivan analyzes the transformations in rural life wrought by the internationalization of agribusiness and contests over land rights by Indigenous social movements. 

The Visible Hands That Feed (August 2023) by Ruzana Liburkina

In The Visible Hands That Feed, Ruzana Liburkina approaches the food sector against the backdrop of its pivotal role for social and ecological relations to trace the potentials and limitations for sustainable change from within. Drawing on the results of ethnographic fieldwork in Europe and South America, Liburkina conducts an in-depth exploration of the practices, visions, concerns, and relationships that unfold at the very locations where food is grown, processed, stored, and served.

Almost Somewhere (October 2023) by Suzanne Roberts

Part memoir, part nature writing, part travelogue, Almost Somewhere is Roberts’s account of her twenty-eight day hike on the John Muir Trail. This new edition includes an afterword by the author looking back on the ways both she and the John Muir Trail have changed over the past thirty years, as well as book club and classroom discussion questions and photographs from the trip.

Framing Nature (February 2024) by Yolonda Youngs

In Framing Nature, Yolonda Youngs traces the idea of the Grand Canyon as an icon and the ways people came to know it through popular imagery and visual media. She analyzes and interprets more than 1,400 visual artifacts, including postcards, maps, magazine illustrations, and photographs of the Grand Canyon, supplemented with the words and ideas of writers, artists, explorers, and other media makers from 1869 to 2022.